The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-07-29
DIR CINDERELLA.

She was our nursemaid and a sort of a
factotum. We thought we could scarcely
get along without her. And we called her
'Our Cinderella playfully, and not at all
reproaehfully. Our cook had gone off, and.
my wife being sick at the time, Betty I'M
dertook to get our breakfast. She succeed
ed, after a fashion; but she so covered her
neat little person with ashes and coal smut
that my little daughter Chrissy, called her
Cinderella, and the name stuck.
The way we got Betty was this. Our
boy baby, little Marmaduke. had to be
ont in the air, and my wife, Mrs. Judkins
i am John Judkins, scotsman and florist,
successor to Jarman & Jadkins-suggest-
ed that, as the seed shon vas doing a good
business aud the greenhouses were run to
their full capacity; and we were able to
keep a cook and a chambermaid, we might
as well go further and have a regular
French bonnie, with ribbons and a cap like
a new pudding bag, to wheel little Marina
duke on the sidewalk. Thus we could add
to the comfort Of the family and show an
admiring population the prize baby of the
period-growing thus two plants on one
stalk. | suggested in turn that we had better
move out to the garden, where there was a
handsome house for which | had not been
able to secure a tenant. Here my better
half i~nterposed a veto. Mrs. Judkins had
been born and bred in the city. and in the
city she would live and die. Like her faith
er, the late Mr.. Jarman, there was no over
coming her once expressed resolution.
AT length this matter was settled by a
compromise. / didn't get the French
bonnie, but | came upon a German one, a
sort OF amateur nurse as it We're. A young
girl, fresh from Carlsruhe, who spoke Eng
lisll very well, but a little stiIted, as she
had learned it at school, was looking for a
situation as a teacher. She had good re-
concentrations and was youched for as re-
spectacle by the German consul. who was
an occasional customer of mine. In default
of something better she agreed to teach
Chrissy German and the piano, and to give
the baby attention and an airing when we
thought proper. SO engaged her at very
reasonable wages.
Her name was Elisabeth Rheinfeldt; and
SO we translated her name into Elizabeth.
and from that into Betty. The only draw
back was that she was very pretty and
graceful, and had the smallest feet and
hands | had ever seen on a girl; but that
jast fitted the baby, who was the very-no
matter; every one admitted his beauty.
She grew to be invaluable, for she turned
out to be a good seamstress, and was ready
to turf her hand at anything.
Bit by bit we got her history. Her
father, who was the cadet of a good family,
had married the daughter of a mechanic,
when the head of the house cast him off.
He had obtained a situation as librarian at
Carlsrnhe, and there he managed to live
comfortably and educate his only daughter.
who had lost her mother when five years
old. Then when he died the baron, her
uncle, would have recognized her. but she
resented her fathers treatment and reject
ed his offer of a home. Believing she could
earn her living in America as a teacher,
she had sold the household effects left her.
and came to this country with a slender
purse, whose contents were nearly exhaust
ed when We got her.
Among my customers was Mr.. Panl Elk
ton, 4 rich bachelor, who was a great low
err fancier and an amateur gardener, with a
conservatory large enough for a green
house and a great desire TO grow new va
rieties Of plants. He was not much over
thirty, but had SO bronzed himselfby travel
that he locked Older. When he grew any
thing novel, which he rarely did, he always
gave me the stock to propagate from, so
that he was very Useful; and he got into
the habit of dropping in the shop and chat
ting once or twice a week, or even ~oftener,
and we grew quite intimate. One day-it
was just two months after Betty had come
to us-Exton came in the shop. He was
in a state of excitement. and had evidently
not come to buy or talk plants.
"Judkins, old fellow he said-he al
ways called me sold fellow when he was
in good humor-'I had a queer thing hap
pen To me to-day. was crossing town to
go over to Williamsburg when | found |
had ripped one of my shoes. found a
German cobbler's shop in Avenue A, and
stopped to nave it sewed. While | was
waiting for it | saw, standing on the c0nn-
ter, waiting repairs, a pair of the p~rettiest
female shoes in the world. They were
worn down, but perfectly even on the heel
and sole, and the feet they belong TO must
be simply perfect. Small, high instep,
we'll neutrality-suspicious.. Isaid to the cob
bier: The child that wears those ought
to be handsome, aChild!' said he, she's
a fraulein, and very pretty at that He
did not know her name, but promised To
find out. | am bound to get acquainted
with her, and if she's all right-she has
good blood, as her feet show-and she'll
nave me, by. Jove, I'll make her Mrs. Elk
ton
There was something SO eomieal in the
idea of a man choosing a wife by her feet
that I laughed outright, and so did he.
Exton came in a week later, aud among
| other things | asked him if he had found
| the young lady with the pretty feet. He